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Here are three powerful phrases you should say directly to your donors.

We work these ideas into almost every appeal and e-appeal our clients send out. And I’m certain they’re a part of our clients’ success.

Here’s the list:

“Your gift is needed”

“You and your generosity make a real difference”

“I’m thankful I can write to you about this”

Your donor almost never hears these things from the charities she supports!

And if you say them, you’ll raise more money. Let’s take them one by one.

“Your gift is needed”

Most nonprofits don’t ask directly for gifts. They’ll share a story of a person the nonprofit has already helped. They’ll talk about all the good work the nonprofit is already doing.

And then they’ll ask for “partnership” or “support.”

I’m here to tell you that you will raise more money if you directly say to your donors, “Your gift is needed right now.”

Your donors are hearing from lots of nonprofits today. Many of them are talking about the good work that the nonprofit has already done. But if you’re asking for a gift and if you make a good case for why her gift is needed today, and tell her that her gift is needed today, you’ll be overjoyed at the response you receive.

And your donors will love giving the gifts. Because they love to feel needed.

“You and your generosity make a real difference”

Again, this is something most donors never hear directly.

I think that nonprofits feel like they are saying this all the time. But they aren’t – they’re usually talking about what the organization has done, not what the donor has done.

So when you directly say to your donor, “You and your gift make a real difference,” you’ll probably be the only nonprofit in her portfolio that’s telling her.

When it comes time for her to give her next gift, do you think the nonprofit that’s made it incredibly clear to its donors that they and their gifts make a real difference has the best chance of getting that gift?

You bet.

“I’m thankful I can write to you about this”

This is one of those powerful ways you can show your donor that you don’t take her for granted.

Take off your “fundraiser” hat for a second and put your donor hat on.

Wouldn’t you love to hear, regularly, that the organization writing you is thankful even for the opportunity to write to you?

If they’re thankful to be able to write and talk to you, how thankful must they be when you give them a gift?

And if they are that thankful for you – if you mean that much to them – doesn’t that make you more likely to give them another gift?

Personally, I think this is such a powerful idea that I’ve put it in every appeal and e-appeal I’ve written recently.

You can think of all three of these ideas as clearly and quickly communicating ideas that matter to donors.

In today’s world of harder donor acquisition and dropping retention rates, isn’t telling your donor that she’s needed, that she makes a difference, and that you’re thankful for her – isn’t that more important than ever?

The appeal letters and e-appeals that do the best tend to have something in common: they give donors multiple good reasons to give a gift right now.

This highlights a really good habit to get into as a Fundraiser: any time you’re asking for money, give your audience multiple reasons to give a gift right now.

And here’s a list of “reasons to give today” that routinely cause donors to take action:

A matching grant with an expiration date

A deadline of any kind

A shortfall

A need facing beneficiaries or the organization right now

Telling donors they will love how they feel when they give

Stating what will happen if beneficiaries are not helped

Contrast this to what most nonprofit appeals and e-appeals do: tell a story about a person or thing the organization has already helped, and ask the donor to “continue this good work” or “join us as we do more of this.”

If you read those appeals carefully, you’ll see that there’s no reason that the donor’s help is needed today.

And if your donor had two appeals in her hand – and she has at least two on most days – which do you think she’d respond to? The one that asks her to “continue this good work” or the one that gives her several reasons why her gift is needed today?

You know the answer.

So for your next appeal or e-appeal, be sure to include multiple good reasons for your donor to respond immediately after reading it.

You’ll be glad you did because you’ll raise more money.

And believe it or not, your donors will be glad you did, too. They love knowing what your organization and your beneficiaries are facing now, and they love being able to help with a gift!

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Reason #47 I shouldn’t be in charge: I thought Giving Tuesday was a dumb idea and would never work.

Boy, was I wrong.

But my wrongness is a great reminder of the big lessons that the success of Giving Tuesday teaches all nonprofits that are paying attention.

Lesson #1: the generosity of donors should surprise and delight us

Listen. “Giving Tuesday” is a made-up holiday, during one of the busiest seven-day periods of the year, immediately after donors have spent outrageously – and it is working like crazy.

If that doesn’t make you realize how generous donors are, nothing will.

While at their busiest, donors give. They give sacrificially. They give heroically. Of all the other things they could be doing that day, they give. In droves.

That should be a surprise. It should be a delight.

If I were King For A Day, one of my mandates would be for all Fundraisers to take ten minutes the day after Giving Tuesday to be surprised and delighted at the gifts their donors just gave.

Lesson #2: most nonprofits can Ask their donors for support more often

Ask yourself this question: if your donors will give your gifts on a completely made-up holiday, when won’t they give you gifts?

I’m convinced that Giving Tuesday succeeds – especially with smaller organizations – in part because of pent-up giving.

These organizations have donors who would love to give more. But those donors just aren’t Asked often enough. Or they are usually Asked in ways that hide the real need.

I could go all data-nerd on you, but instead, I’ll just tell a short story. In my 25 years of fundraising, I’ve only seen one organization where the data showed that the organization was Asking their donors too often. And that organization was mailing about 24 appeals and 12 newsletters per year.

Your organization shouldn’t be mailing that many. Or even nearly that many.

But I think the success of Giving Tuesday should teach you that your donors love to give to your organization – and that they will give gifts when you ask them well and you give them good reasons to give!

Looking back, I should have known that Giving Tuesday would work. Because the generosity of donors is a wonderful surprise that we can count on. And because most organizations don’t Ask their donors often enough.

For all you small-to-medium organizations out there: you have pent-up giving among your donors. Go give them powerful reasons to give gifts. They will surprise and delight you!

On Tuesday, I wrote about The Curse of Knowledge. To summarize: most nonprofits are experts in their cause or niche, and so they communicate to donors at the organization’s level of expertise and understanding.

Because the organization’s level of expertise and understanding are higher than most donors, this results in donor communications that appear to donors as disconnected and even irrelevant.

Ouch.

Listen, most donors are thinking, “I care about your cause / the people you help; what can my gift do to help them?” That’s why your donor is reading your letter.

But most nonprofits don’t answer that question! Nonprofits describe how the organization does its work instead of what the donor’s gift will do to help.

“But Donors Will Never Give to That!”

The fundraising that tends to work the best – in test after test – feels overly simple to experts.

“We have 19 programs that provide a holistic approach to care” will raise less money than “$1.92 will feed a hungry person.”

“End generational homelessness” will raise less money than “$33 provides a night of safe shelter for a homeless mom and her kids.”

“Experience the Arts” will raise less money than “You can provide drama classes for junior high school students.”

In each of the above cases, the Expert will say, “But donors will never give to that. That’s only part of what we do. And it’s not even the most important part!”

But remember – your donors aren’t experts. They don’t even want to become experts. They just want to help somebody or support the cause.

The Cure for the Curse

The cure for the curse is pretty simple. Talk to your donors at their level of understanding. Theirs, not yours.

(And remember how the conversation is happening: a letter or an email where you have the donor’s attention for several seconds. You do not have time for complex arguments, or to bring her to an Expert’s level of understanding.)

You Can Be Direct & Simple

You can keep it pretty simple. Talk about one part of what you do, or one program, instead of everything you do.

Make sure it’s compelling. Think drama, think emotion. Remember, you only have your donor’s attention for a few seconds. Her attention is precious; you have to earn it, and you have to keep it.

You can be direct. Tell her the problem your beneficiaries or cause is facing, then ask her to give a gift to solve that problem.

Present a problem that she can solve with a gift.

a. Don’t talk to her about poverty in Pittsburgh and then ask her to “end poverty in Pittsburgh” – is that a problem she can solve? No. Talk to her about what it’s like not to have food at the end of every month, then ask her to feed a family for a month.

b. Don’t talk to her about how the Arts are dying in Arizona and then ask her to “save the Arts in Arizona” – she can’t solve that problem. Talk to her about your program to provide art supplies to middle school kids, then ask her to provide art supplies for one student, or maybe for one classroom.

As I mentioned earlier this week, your internal Experts won’t like fundraising that’s simple and direct.

But your donors will. And your Experts will like the additional revenue that starts coming in when you have the discipline to tune your fundraising to your donors’ level of understanding (and amount of attention) instead of that of your Experts.

Think of this post as a brief introduction to the idea that being an expert about your field, or about your organization, can cause your fundraising to raise less money.

I’m going to cover three things very quickly:

Define “The Curse of Knowledge”

Show how knowledge or expertise often hurts fundraising

Talk about how to get past it to raise more money

The Curse of Knowledge

Wikipedia says, “The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that occurs when an individual, communicating with other individuals, unknowingly assumes that the others have the background to understand.”

You know the feeling, right? You’re listening to an expert talk about something and you’re thinking, “That sounds really smart, but I’m not totally sure what everything meant.”

Let me submit to you that donors have that reaction All The Time when they read fundraising.

How Knowledge Hurts Fundraising

This is very simple:

Experts use jargon. They say that a child is “food insecure” instead of “often goes to bed hungry.”

They use conceptual language. They say “Will you stand behind the victims…” instead of “Will you give a victim exactly what she needs to recover…”

The write at a high grade level that takes more cognitive effort to understand.

Experts don’t like to talk about the Need. So they talk almost exclusively about the successes – which unfortunately hides the Need from donors.

They think about groups of people instead of one person who needs help. They’ll say, “Will you support vulnerable children…” instead of “Will you help a child who needs help now…”

All of these things make the fundraising sound smart and technically accurate – to experts.

But these traits make fundraising harder to read and understand by a donor who isn’t an expert. And – this is important – who is only looking at your letter or email for a few short seconds.

How to Avoid the Curse

Always remember who you are talking to: non-experts. So instead of saying, “Our holistic approach,” say, “Your gift helps them every single way they need help.” Instead of saying, “Your support will provide employment resources to disadvantaged people,” say, “You’ll give a job-seeker everything she needs to get a job.” This approach will sound overly simple to you, and will sound just right to your donors.

Always remember how you are talking to them – in a medium (usually in a letter or email) where most donors only give you a few short seconds of attention. You don’t have time to make complex arguments. This is not a conference or a meeting with a Foundation where you have lots of time, and people want to see the data. For mass donor fundraising you need to make it easy for your reader to know exactly what you’re talking about, and do it quickly.

The Cost and the Incredible Benefit

There’s a cost to doing fundraising this way: the experts in your organization won’t like your fundraising. This is a personal, subjective reaction because your fundraising won’t be written to their level of understanding and expertise.

That’s a real cost. Some organizations never pay it.

But the benefit is clear: talking to donors about what they care about, in language that they quickly understand, absolutely leads to raising more money and doing more good.

A conversation with a high-ranking official who wants their fundraising staff to talk a lot about their organization:

“It’s really hard to get new donors.”

Yup. I learned the hard way that when you have nothing to say, be careful that you don’t pay money to say it.

“Wait, what?”

Have you ever paid for a mailing list? Or for radio spots? But basically nothing happened? You spent twenty thousand bucks and got eleven new donors?

“Sure. A couple times. But everyone has paid for things that didn’t work.”

When this happened, did you realize your message was at fault? Or did your organization just move along to whatever the next urgent thing was?

“Well, it wasn’t really a failure. We raised awareness and got some name recognition.”

I hate to say this, but name recognition will only make a difference if your competitors are invisible or incompetent.

“What do you mean?”

Invisible means that they don’t have the courage to ask for donations. Incompetent means their fundraising is worse than yours.

“But our fundraising is way better than average. It looks and feels professional.”

I hate to tell you this, but most fundraising isn’t written primarily to raise funds. It’s written not to offend anyone. It’s written to please internal audiences. This is why most letters follow an outline that doesn’t work. And why most fundraising gets lost in the shuffle. And why most organizations never “make the leap” to the next level.

“Are you saying that most fundraising is ineffective?”

Even the weakest fundraising is somewhat effective. That’s because donors are incredibly generous. They are able to see past the poor fundraising because they care so much about the cause or the beneficiaries.

“Can you tell me what you mean by that?”

Weak fundraising is about the organization itself. But talking mostly about the organization in fundraising is a mistake because most donors caremoreabout the cause and the beneficiaries than they care about the organization. Listen, they became your donors in the first place because they care about the cause. Your organization helped them do something about it – which is incredibly valuable but isn’t the primary reason they donated to you.

“So if I don’t talk about my organization, what do I talk about?”

Good fundraising is about your donor and what they already care about. About their passions and interests. About what offends them. About the problems in the world that break their heart.

“So how do I find out what my donor cares about?”

You already know what they care about! They care about your cause or your beneficiaries. They wouldn’t be your donors in the first place if they didn’t care about those things. So talk about those things at their level of understanding – not yours.

“Why their level? Why not ours? We work on such a complex, in-depth problem. And our holistic approach produces the best results! The statewide average is 37% but we produce an 89% …”

Forgive me for interrupting. Remember: she’s interested in her passions, her interests, at her level of understanding. Why did you just start talking about your approach instead of what she cares about?”

“Oh.”

Your approach makes you great at what you do. That makes your organization effective. But most donors are not experts. They don’t make their gifts based on your efficacy. Most donors make gifts based on whether you talk about something they care about.

“But if I just talk to donors about what they care about, why would they ever donate to my organization?”

That’s easy: because your organization will be the only one talking to them about what they care about.They’ll LOVE you. All of the other organizations will be droning on about their organization, their incredible processes, the stats that only experts understand, on and on. All the while your donors will keep donating – and new donors will be attracted to you – because you talk to them about what they care about. They’ll think you are a friend who can help them do the good in the world that they already want to do. It’s like you arrived in their life to help them. Doesn’t that seem like a good way to win, keep and lift donors?

“As much as I hate to say it, you’re beginning to make a little bit of sense.”

Thanks. You just started an incredibly rewarding journey where you’re going to come to appreciate donors in a whole new way – and raise a lot more money!

According to Network for Good, most nonprofits raise about 1/3 of their revenue in December. And 11% of their annual total during the last three days of the year.

Year-end is the easiest time to raise more money online! Think about it this way:

Your donors are more likely to give during the last weeks of the year than any other time of the entire year.

And because year-end is such an important time for digital fundraising, we want to give you 5 tips that will ensure a successful year-end for your fundraising.

# 1: Use the same message in every channel

Some of your donors are online, some aren’t. Pick your strongest message, then repeat it through direct mail, email, your website, and social media. It’s more powerful for your donors to see the same message in different media channels than it is for them to see two different messages. Repetition is your friend!

# 2: Ask early and often

You’ve been talking to your donors all year about what your organization does, you’ve told them how they can help. So this time of year, don’t Thank them. Or Report to them. It might feel counterintuitive, but our testing showed that Thanking and Reporting this time of year will cause you to raise less money than you could. Follow the advice below and just Ask well!

# 3: Emphasize the deadline

A deadline communicates urgency. December 31 is a natural deadline — for the tax year and for your organization. Tell donors your deadline and repeat it multiple times in your messages.

# 4: Set a goal

How much do you want or need to raise? What would it take for you to meet your budget? Feed everyone you want to feed by year-end? Shelter abandoned pets through the end of the year? Overcome a financial shortfall? Tell your donors the goal.

We need to raise $XX,XXX by midnight, December 31.

# 5: Communicate consequences

What will happen if you don’t meet the goal? Connect the donor right to the heart of your work.

We need to raise $XX,XXX by midnight, December 31 or we will have to cut back on the number of pets in our shelter in the coming year.

Or

We need to raise $XX,XXX by midnight, December 31 or we will not be able to advocate for the arts as effectively next year.

Whatever your organization does, if having less money means you would be able to do less next year, say so!

Most important tip? Start now!

We’ve built a Year-End Digital Fundraising Toolkit so that you can develop a successful year-end digital campaign. Buy it now and you’ll save time, raise more money, and have your best year-end ever!

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Instant Appeals & Reports

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We’ll run a Kickoff meeting for each appeal and newsletter

We’ll write a Creative Brief defining exactly what will be said and how it will be said

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